Yes, the Family Guy/Simpsons crossover is just getting more and more reprehensible with each new tidbit. But if you can pull yourself away from your wastebin for just a minute, we can talk about the crossover episode we actually want to see.
We already know the plot: Bender goes all Terminator on Bart’s shorts due to something Bart does that negatively affects the future. Considering who’s after him, we’re going to assume that this is something only Bender sees as a negative, and the rest of the Futurama crew heads back in time to stop him. And they will all be showing up: The Wrap confirms that the entire voice cast will be coming back.
The episode is going to air in November, prime sweeps territory as well, which is intriguing. If Fox were just going to let this happen to appease Matt Groening, they probably would have dumped it in March or something. That this will be arriving during sweeps is a much more tantalizing prospect; either Fox really wants to keep Groening happy, or Fox is curious to see whether the show’s fanbase can support more episodes.
It’s more credible than you might at first think. The Seth McFarlane animation train is grinding to a halt: The Cleveland Show was mercifully ended before it could hit 100 episodes, and American Dad! has jumped to TBS for its final season. That leaves them with Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Bob’s Burgers, and a weird combo of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Mulaney to fill in the gaps of “Animation Domination.” Fox’s animated shows don’t do blockbuster numbers, but they dominate Sunday night, so they want to keep the theme.
From that perspective, Futurama has to be tempting: It’s a property with a dedicated fanbase, that Fox owns the rights to, and that, while it isn’t a ratings juggernaut, Fox still makes a pile of money on home video and streaming rights if they put out another season and then cancel it again. So we’ll see, but there might be a lot more good news where this came from.